Stronger Than Cancer
by KaitRip11
Summary: Growing up is scary. Discovering who you are is frightening. Trusting others is difficult. Falling in love is risky. It's all even harder when you have cancer. All human and in Ella and Iggy's POV.
1. Chapter 1

Well this is one of my favorite fan fictions to date. This first chapter is short but it will basically inform you of what is going on. I hope you all like it so please read and review.

Disclaimer: The characters are not my own. They rightfully belong to James Patteson.

This was the scariest moment in my entire life. Grant it I'm only sixteen but still. My mom, Max, and I sat in the waiting room of the hospital I was born in. I grew anxious just sitting there. I hated waiting and hospitals so this sucked. Looking down at my stomach reminded me why we were even here.

About a month ago I got hit in the stomach with a baseball. It gave a pretty bad bruise but I just brushed it off, knowing it would go away in a matter of days. I couldn't have been more wrong. Two weeks later it was still there, as big and purple as ever. Again I brushed it off not wanting to bother anybody with such a seemingly minuet thing. About a week ago I decided that the bruise still being there wasn't a normal thing, so I informed my mom. I mean bruises are supposed to go away in a matter of days.

"Don't worry honey. I'm sure it's nothing." My mom said trying to settle my nerves. No matter what she said nothing was going to help. I looked over at Max who had a blank look on her face. She was just as scared as I was. I mean I'm her baby sister there wasn't anything we wouldn't do for each other.

The three of us sat there for another twenty minutes not saying anything. Just sitting and waiting. Soon a nurse that had a smile plastered on her face came into the waiting room. She walked over to us.

"Will you please come with me?" She asked. So we all got up just as quietly as we were sitting there and followed the nurse away from the waiting room and into a hospital bed room. It was a single unoccupied room so I sat on the bed my legs hanging over the end. Max and mom sat in the chairs against the wall beside the bed.

"Dr. Carver will be with you in just a moment." She then walked out and closed the door behind her. After about five minutes there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Mom told the person standing on the other side of the door. A man, in his maybe late forty's, walked into the room. I recognized him to be Dr. Carver. He stood at the end of the bed in front of me but also facing towards mom and Max. He held a clipboard in his hands. Most likely the result of my various test's I've had in the past couple days.

"Well the rest of the tests have come back a few hours ago. I studied them carefully and I found an abnormality with your blood cells which seem to be cancerous." The room seemed to freeze. Did he just say _cancerous_? "Thankfully since we've caught it early there are steps that we can take to get you better. The types of leukemia most likely to occur in teens are acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). With treatment, most patients with ALL and many patients with AML are free of the disease without reoccurrence. You have nothing to be worried about because we're going to take care of you." After that I stopped listening even though I knew Dr. Carver was explaining the process I would have to go through.

Looking over to mom I saw that she was the only one listening intently. Max looked scared which wasn't a face I ever saw on her.

"Thank you so much Dr. Carver." My mom finally said standing, shaking his hand.

"You're welcome Dr. Martinez. If you have any more question that need to be answered just give my office a call or email. I'll schedule Ella's first treatment and let you know when it is." She shook her head and thanked him once again. In a daze the three of us walked out of the hospital and to the car. Automatically I got into the back seat.

Throughout the whole ride nobody spoke. I guess there was nothing _to_ say. It seemed like the ride was longer than usual and the further away from the hospital we got the harder it was for me to breath.

When we finally reached home Max was the first to get out of the car slamming the door shut. Mom turned around to me and laid her hand on mine.

"Thank you for being strong Ella." Did it seriously seem like I was being strong? I'm scared to death (no pun intended) and she thinks I'm being strong? But I didn't want to discourage her so I just shook my head. Then she got out of the car leaving me to sit by myself in peace.

When you're told you have cancer, so many thoughts run through your head. I wasn't even sure which thought to think about first. When I was fully able to think just one thought at a time the first thought was, "Why did this happen to me?" The basic question that everybody asks, if something bad happens to them. Then I wondered how I was going to survive through all of this. There was nobody I knew who be able to sympathize of even know how I felt. Thankfully I had mom, Max, and my best friend Nudge but none of them would be able to understand.

When it seemed like I had been sitting in the car for a few hours I decided to go inside. I mean I would have to sooner or later. Walking up the sidewalk seemed different. Stepping into the house I have lived in for ten years also seemed different. It felt like the mood was a lot heavier than it usually was. I closed the door behind me and ran up to my room.

My room was my sanctuary. The only place I could be left alone. The walls were a very pretty purple as was most of the stuff in my room. I walked straight over to my window seat and sat down leaning my head against the cool glass. I closed my eyes praying sleep would come soon. The last thought that ran through my head before sleep over came me was, "What am I going to do?"


	2. Chapter 2

Here is the second chapter to Stronger Than Cancer. I want to thank everybody who has reviewed and added my story to their favorites. It makes me smile. Well I hope you all like this chapter so please read and review.

Disclaimer: The characters are not my own. They rightfully belong to James Patteson.

When I woke up I found myself laying down on the window seat and a blanket covering me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes trying to rub the sleep out of them. When I looked over at my alarm clock I saw that it was three o'clock in the morning so there was no way I was staying awake. But no matter how bad I wanted sleep to come again, it wouldn't. Thanks to my next door neighbor's loud music and his obnoxious self. He had no consideration for anyone but himself.

Picking up my phone I dialed the number of the only person in the house that I knew would pick up.

"Hey Ella," The voice on the other end yelled. "What's up!"

"Hey Fang, could you please turn the music down? I have a massive headache and I need to go back to sleep." I told him.

"Oh yeah sorry!" I was so grateful when I could barely hear the music through the phone. It was now nonexistent through the window. "Is that better?" This time he asked in a normal voice not having to yell.

"Yes. Thank you." I said. "What are you guy's doing anyway?" I wondered looking over towards the window that was covered by a black curtain. On days when the curtain was open I would glance over and be able to see a flat screen television, a corkboard that held pictures hung up on a bright blue wall, an acoustics guitar that I could sometimes hear when both windows were open, and a queen sized bed.

"Iggy and I were playing his Xbox." Oh, boys and their video games. "We decided that the music would keep us awake." They did a pretty good job with that one.

"How is anybody asleep in that house?" I asked thinking of Iggy's mom, dad, and little brother Gazzy.

"Gazzy is staying at his friends house and Iggy's parents are taking a vacation this week." Why would they take a vacation without the boy's? "Iggy what did you say you're parents called their vacation?" I'm pretty sure Fang put me on speaker phone because I could hear what Iggy was saying perfectly.

"They called it they're 'very late honeymoon that has been long overdue.'" I laughed. "So basically they are going to fulfill the 'physical needs' that they soon started to talk about…that's when I stopped listening." Now Iggy could be an obnoxious self-centered jerk…but he was funny. I had to at least give him that much.

"Now that's sick." I said still laughing. It felt good to be laughing. I hadn't done much of it in the past twenty-four hours. When the laughter died down I still had a smile on my face.

"How are you feeling?" Fang asked he voice changing from an upbeat tone to a more low tone.

"Max told you didn't she?" She had to of. Not that I really minded though. Max needed somebody to talk to talk to about it and I figured that that person would have been Fang.

"Don't be mad with her. I came over earlier and basically forced her to tell me." I understood.

"I'm not mad." I had no right to be. "I'm not even the least bit surprised that she told you."

"Max is lucky that she has such a great sister." My lips turned up into a smile. Fang, even though he was closed off towards a lot of people, always knew how to make a person better.

"Thanks Fang. So how was Max?" I asked curious. The last time I seen her she was visibly upset.

"The moment I saw her…my heart dropped." And that was Fang talking. His heart dropped for no other girl than Max. "I have never seen her so…scared and vulnerable." It was hard picturing my big sister like that. She has always been the strong one. "She loves you El. Max is the strongest person I know, but this whole situation has shaken her."

"Are you the only one that knows?" I asked wondering if Iggy knew.

"As of right now yes. If you want people to know El, _you're _gonna have to tell them. You got out of telling me thanks to Max but everybody else is up to you." I already knew that but it makes me wonder who I should bother telling.

"Do you think I should tell Iggy?" I asked Fang for advice.

"If you think you should. It's really you're decision though." For some reason it felt like I should. Knowing Iggy for so long it just felt like he should know.

"Well then do you think that you, me, Max, and Iggy could all go to Jordan's tomorrow…and I'll tell him then." If I'm gonna tell him I might as well get it over with.

"I can set that up. Around eleven tomorrow?"

"Sound good to me, but right now I am going back to sleep." I informed him.

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning El. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Fang. You two get some sleep." When the other end of the line clicked off I walked over to my bed and let myself fall down on to the soft mattress. Sleep came quickly but before it totally consumed me I rolled over and glanced to the window of the house next door, the light trying to peak out from behind the curtains.

"What did little Martinez want?" I asked Fang when he was finally done talking to the pest next door. He sat on my queen sized bed behind me.

"She just wanted us to turn the music down. She could hear it from her room." I rolled my eyes. Girls could be such babies. "It is 3:30 o'clock in the morning so I don't blame her."

"Whatever. If it was switched she wouldn't have turned it down." I told him ruffling my hair trying to get it to stay out of my eyes.

"You know she would have. Ella is actually considerate of others unlike some people that I know." I put my hand over my heart dramatically.

"That hurt." We both laughed.

"Anyways in the morning around eleven you, me, Max, and Ella are going to Jordans to hang out."

"Okay first question, why are we going to Jordans?" I asked.

"Just because." Sounded like a Fang kind of answer.

"And second question, why is Ella going?" Now I have know Ella ever since her family has moved here. Max and I have always been friends but Ella was always Max's little sister who just tagged along. Mostly I just pick on her because it annoys her. I know how to get under people's skin and stay there.

"Just because she is." Wow…that's what I get for being best friends with a mute.

"I'm pretty sure that was the longest sentence I have ever heard you speak." I said sarcastically getting me a smack on the back of my head.

"Smart ass." At least he was speaking the truth.

"Yeah, yeah. So what time are we going to Jordan's tomorrow?"

"Eleven O'clock." My mouth fell open.

"So even if we go to sleep now we'll only have," I took a moment to count on my fingers. "Six and a half hours of sleep." This I was not happy about.

"Yup, so we better go to sleep now. We both know it'll take about an hour for you to actually get up and get ready." And while that was true I didn't want to go to sleep. "So that means you need to turn the Xbox off, lay down, close you're eyes, and fall asleep.

"Thank mom. I'm not stupid." I said turning the T.V. off the only light now being from my laptop that sat on my futon.

"Could have fooled me."

"Just because you're gonna be Valedictorian doesn't give you the right to call me stupid." Fang was the smartest guy in our class. I wasn't stupid. Maybe if I applied myself I would do a lot better.

"I'm sorry man." Fang apologized. I knew he meant it. "There's just a lot running through my mind." I nodded.

"Like what?" I wondered moving my laptop and laying down on my futon ready to go to sleep.

"All I can say is you'll find out tomorrow." I was lost. What would I find out tomorrow? I knew though that there was no point in pushing the matter. If Fang wasn't gonna tell me the first time I asked he won't tell me if I ask again.

"Alright then. Goodnight Fang." I said turning on my side getting as comfortable as I could on a futon as one could.

"Night Ig." Then I just laid there waiting for sleep to come. While I laid there all I could think about was what I was going to be told tomorrow. Finally sleep came and not a moment to soon. I was driving myself crazy with all the thinking.


End file.
